Examines the origins of the religious traditions of the world during the ninth century B.C.E. in four distinct regions--Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, and philosophical rationalism in Greece.

One-hundred million years ago Australia, as part of the great southern continent known as Gondwana, was inhabited by a unique species of dinosaur - the Muttaburrasaurus. Evidence of this dinosaur has not been found anywhere else in the world.. This program uses highly detailed and accurate models and an imaginative combination of animation and documentary footage to trace the existence of Muttaburrasaurus, revealing its habitat and behavioural patterns...

The life-sized terracotta warriors of China are known throughout the world. This clay army of 8,000 including infantry, archers, generals and cavalry was discovered by archaeologists in 1974 after farmers digging a well near the Chinese city of Xian unearthed pieces of clay sculpted in human form. An amazing archaeological find, the terracotta warriors date back more than two thousand years. But what was the purpose of this army of clay soldiers?...

Their origins are unknown, their language one of the world's most ancient. They established one of the first democracies and led Europe's Age of Exploration, fueled the industrial revolution and then established Spain's first labor unions. Today they are the farmers preserving heirloom seeds, the engineers developing sustainable energies and the activists demanding social change.. Who are these people and how have they navigated the ages as a thriving...

The Travels of Marco Polo is among history's most famous and influential travel narratives. Track the route of Marco's three-year journey from Venice across Central Asia, to reach the court of the great Kublai Kahn. Learn about the 24 years he spent in service to the Kahn, during which he traveled extensively across China and Asia, before making a triumphant journey back to Venice.

Diarmaid MacCulloch discusses the Reformation, Protestantism, Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli , John Calvin, the Counter Reformation, and the Thirty Years War.

The spiritual impulse of the time steps beyond the boundaries of religious tradition - so wrote Theodore Roszak, spokesman for the counter-culture, who is Ronald Eyre's guide to the new religious concerns of people living in the San Francisco Bay area. Here religious ideas and life styles of East and West mingle and people brought up in a largely Christian cultural climate look East to Taoism and Hinduism for inspiration.

The High Middle Ages saw phenomenal growth in civilizations across the world, in the areas of population, wealth, and expansion. Look into the technological innovations that underlay the flourishing of China's Song Dynasty, and the agricultural innovations and new technology for power that fueled prosperity in Europe. Then note the rise of the Seljuk Turks, and the threat they posed to the West.

Diarmaid MacCulloch discusses the beginnings of Catholicism, the rise of the Catholic Church in Rome and the Papacy.

In our search for Chinese religious experience, we go to Taiwan. A whole pantheon of gods both local and imported from the mainland are worshipped in thousands of Buddhist and Taoist temples. Several strands make up the religious life of the village: a Confucian respect for past and the ancestors, the cosmic pattern of the Tao that permeates all levels of existence and manifests itself through oracles, the local gods who dispense justice and favors,...